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Tuesday, 5 April 2016

Not Hillary!

“Anyone
But Hillary” Movement Gaining Popularity

Democratic
presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton has a low popularity level,
which makes it surprising that the hash tag “#NeverHillary” is
not as popular as “#NeverTrump.”

Hillary
has received criticism from celebrities and many of her poll numbers
show poor popularity ratings. On top of that, a new advertising
campaign against Hillary has come out. But, will it matter?

According
to a recently headline from the Wall Street Journal, 33% of
supporters for Democratic presidential contender Bernie Sanders said
they won’t vote for Hillary Clinton if she ends up making it to the
general election.

“In
a year when political outsiders in both parties appear to be
capitalizing on voter support, the view among Sanders supporters that
Hillary is the embodiment of establishment politics could prove to be
a liability,” the Wall Street Journal story stated.

However,
the 33% of Sanders supporters who said they won’t vote for Hillary
in a general election are actually based off only 197 Democratic
voters of the primary who took the survey. With such a small figure,
this creates a high margin of error. Meanwhile, 78% of the Democratic
voters of the primary said they will have satisfaction if Hillary
becomes the Democratic nominee.

These
results may not be perfect, but they are better than what Republican
candidates are seeing. For example, 55% of Ted Cruz supporters who
responded to the poll say they won’t support Donald Trump if he is
the GOP nominee. Then, 53% of Republican voters of the primary said
they would be satisfied having Trump being the GOP nominee.

Despite
all this, there is still an anti-Hillary atmosphere out there. Just
recently, Sanders supporter and actress Susan Sarandon hinted that a
Trump presidency would be better than a Clinton presidency.

“I
think Bernie would probably encourage people, because he doesn’t
have any ego in this thing,” Sarandon said to Chris Hayes of MSNBC.
“But I think a lot of people are, ‘Sorry, I just can’t bring
myself to vote for Clinton.’”

“I
don’t know. I’m going to see what happens.”

Conservative
groups have been happy and enthusiastic about the anti-Hillary
sentiment out there. A Super PAC named American Crossroads, which was
founded by Karl Rove, released a new #NeverHillary advertisement this
week.

They said more advertisements like this one will be coming in
the future as well.

“With
a long resume of scandals and unethical behavior, Hillary Clinton is
the one candidate unfit to be president of a condo association, much
less the United States,” Ian Prior said, who is a spokesman for the
PAC. “Because of that, it is important for everyone to consider
what would happen if Hillary reached the Oval Office and then focus
on making sure that never happens.”

The
weird thing about all this is that the liberals on the Democratic
side don’t seem to be attacking Trump just yet. The billionaire
businessman’s low popularity numbers with the public should make
him a big target of Democrats. But, #NeverTrump seems to be something
that is only used from conservatives within the GOP at the moment.

As
for #NeverHillary, this could be used by just about any type of
voter. Perhaps this is an indication that Hillary will have a tough
job winning the election in November after all.

Wishful thinking? Do people care?

The
Panama Papers Scandal Could Put Bernie Sanders In The White House

Long
Story Short

A
huge scandal over offshore tax havens has just exploded, so expect
the five remaining presidential hopefuls to answer some questions
that will leave some of the squirming. Probably no one will squirm
more so than Hillary Clinton — and no one will benefit more than
her rival Bernie Sanders.

Long
Story

When
you think of the term “global elite,” few names spring to mind
more readily than Bill and Hillary Clinton. And while the former and
perhaps future First Couple have had a pretty good run despite some
spectacular ups and downs, the Panama
Papers scandal may
permanently dash their hopes of moving back into the White House.

The
leak of 2.6 terabytes worth of data from a Panamanian law firm that
specializes in facilitating tax dodging by rich people around the
world is going to lead to some very uncomfortable questions for some
world leaders (it
already has, in Iceland’s case).
That could include Hillary Clinton, one of the most insider-y of all
Beltway insiders.

Sanders
has regularly railed against Clinton’s coziness with some of the
most morally questionable financial companies out there, notably
Goldman Sachs.

So
when Sanders tells his throngs of adoring fans that the system is
designed to favor a small, wealthy circle, the Panama Papers appear
to back him up. And while neither Clinton nor any of her friends
have been linked to any mischief, yet, there is no denying that
she is part of that same elite that benefits from devious offshore
tax havens.

And
Bernie so clearly is not. His hands appear clean, and that is a huge
part of his appeal to a generation that feels the odds have been
deliberately stacked against them for the gain of others. The longer
this scandal is kept alive, the better it is for the Sanders
campaign.

With
the Wisconsin primaries set for Tuesday, his campaign can use the
help. He holds a slight
lead over Clinton,
but some observers, including the New
York Times,
appear ready to eulogize it already, in face of what they say are
near mathematically impossible odds of securing the delegates needed
for the nomination.

But
If Sanders can hammer the point that Clinton belongs to that
demographic, an enraged and powerless electorate can swing even
further against her, and line up firmly behind him.